The WWE Global Cruiserweight show

[C.S.]

What happened with Josh Matthews and TJP?

 

Anyway, I think it's pretty clear that TJP wasn't originally the guy they were going to go with, but he was definitely top 5 or 8 in their minds if you look back at Bracketology and see who made "live" studio appearances. He was one of the few wrestlers who did and his story was one of the big parts of that show. But I agree that his story wasn't pushed as well as it could have been after that. It doesn't help that there was some other homeless dude in the tournament too (Swann?).

 

Speaking of which, I am not buying this "Swann was one of the major crowd favorites" claim, because I don't see that at all. Yeah, the crowd liked him, but they liked a lot of other wrestlers too.

 

Edit: Agree with CapitalTTruth though. If TJP's story had been pushed more, his wins might not have been as surprising and he might not have been as much of an underdog as he was. It works both ways.

[sek69]

TNA was jerking TJP around, unmasking him as Manik then deciding he should go back to being masked when he just wanted to be himself again. He ended up getting his release, and when he announced it on his Twitter Josh had to do a run in all "JUST GO AWAY BRO" to come off like an internet tough guy. It was just a bad look for the company's lead PBP guy and unprofessional as hell.

[C.S.]

Has Josh Matthews ever been 1. professional, 2. good at his job? When WWE canned him, I was surprised. Now I completely understand. He's probably seething with jealous rage that it's TJP and not him who got to resurrect the WWE Cruiserweight Division (Josh was a wrestler at one time).

[AstroBoy]

I could understand TJP not jumping off the page for some but I give him a ton of credit. He was put in the unenviable position of beating some beloved names and/or charismatic underdogs in consecutive rounds. He was booked to knock everyone's favorite out. Clearly he could have tried to wrestle more flashy and pull out more high spots to win over the crowd but he was the glue helping keep things together for much of his tournament run. Instead of going crazy spot for crazy spot he kept things sensible and got over the kneebar as a deadly finish. It's a big feather in his cap the matches he had with Swann and Ibushi.

 

He really came across as a guy slightly outmatched in the semis who comes out with a very good gameplan and then just needs to survive through attrition. And he felt like the guy keeping things together in the finals. I'm starting to think he's one of the more underappreciated wrestlers in the world this year.

[Cap]

yeah, i love how much they played up the gameplan stuff in that Ibushi match.

 

I agree (or at least I think Astroboy and I agree) that the sensible approach was best, especially effective for the story of Perkin's journey to the tourney win. If he had gone more flashy he would have been crucified for being so spot heavy and every match being a repeat. All of the credit then would have gone directly to his opponents. He was damned either way I suppose.

[C.S.]

Tyson Dux comments on the CWC's restrictions:

 

"We had agents. We had to deal with agents as well and plan it out. I know for me personally, I wanted to do a stalling suplex from the second rope and they completely scrapped that. They said no way can you do that. For whatever reason, Me & Zach were supposed to be 50/50 right up to the end and it was more of a showcase for Zach which is understandable, right? I get it. There weren't major handcuffs put on, but they did want to steer the ship the way they want to steer it. So as we go along and get more progressive into it, they're easing up on it. Tozawa is known for that snap German suplex with a hold for the pin and they were adamant on saying no absolutely no head drops at all and when push came to shove, Tozawa did put (Ken) Johnson directly on his bean for that snap German suplex. It's the same as anything. It's wrestling politics. Either you kind of bite the bullet and ask for forgiveness later or you just do your stuff. I'm sure to God that burning hammer (Brian Kendrick's) was not discussed. WWE doesn't even let the tombstone fly other than The Undertaker."

 

http://wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2016/0915/617562/tyson-dux-talks-wwe-cruiserweight-classic-limits-restrictions/

[Jimmy Redman]

When this tournament started (hell, when the quarter finals started) I did not give a single shit about TJ Perkins. I had literally zero thoughts or feelings about him. He was a guy.

 

I was out of my mind watching him vs Ibushi, I jumped up into the air when he beat him, and I cried along with him when he won the trophy and the title.

 

This. Show. Fucking. Rules.

 

So yeah that was a great show to cap it all off. When Metalik and Zack came out it only then struck me how much of a styles clash this was, but to their credit they matched up pretty well. I liked the manic opening from Metalik trying to get the quick win (making it stand out from the other matches) and how Zack had to try to regroup from that point on. It was EASILY Zack's best performance and match in the tournament, and I could honestly watch Metalik do his pretty little rope walking stuff all day.

 

They really did a great job with TJ's story. They didn't overplay it in the early rounds because Kendrick was clearly the biggest and most emotional underdog story in the tournament so they focused on him, but then once he was eliminated they slowly transitioned to TJP as the other underdog who was still in the running, and tied that in with facing - and beating - favourites like Gargano, Swann and then Ibushi. I said last time that Ibushi was being pushed so hard as a favourite that I could see the upset coming, but at the same time, Ibushi was so indestructible during his matches that it was hard to imagine anyone beating him. So I couldn't pick this thing.

 

It was a fucking awesome match though. It built and built so well, from TJ blocking Ibushi's kicks early before finally getting rocked by them, to him always going to the kneebar but Ibushi fighting out of it every time, to all of the cool shit (seriously, four matches and Ibushi still hasn't run through all his spots yet), this was great. Loved Ibushi's screaming desperate Pele kick to the top. The powerbomb kickout was a HUGE moment and built to so well through the tournament. And just when you think Ibushi will win it, TJ pulls out yet another counter into the kneebar, and not just that but locks in some insane crossed over kneebar-facelock combo death move, because that's the only thing that will kill the invincible ace Ibushi...and he finally taps! The king is dead! Awesome match.

 

Tag match warmed up into a pretty fun balls out spotfest to pass the time. Ciampa and Dar is like the battle of the dudes with short torsos and high pants. Cool stretch. For a guy with a Scottish accent I feel very little for Noam Dar.

 

"TIME TO PLAY THE GAME" interrupting the start of the tournament final was the most hilariously HUNTOR thing to ever happen since his Wrestlemania entrance. But it was worth it for the title reveal. I liked that this match started out much slower to reflect that both guys had already wrestled. I don't remember much about the body of the match other than METALIK LEAPING OVER THE TOP ROPE INTO THE RANA TO THE FLOOR WAS THE MOTHERFUCKING BEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN!!! Also some of those chops were brutal and TJ's bloody chest was sick. Once again I loved all of the kneebar attempts and escapes, until TJ just had one too many counters and Metalik just couldn't escape one more time. They've done such a great job getting that kneebar over.

 

So yeah this has been a hell of a ride. So much of the idea of this show still just blows my mind, and it delivered so much in reality. I'm genuinely going to be kind of lost for a bit without having the CWC to look forward to every week.

[TravJ1979]

When Hunter's music hit, a part of me thought he was going to come and lay out both guys and cut a promo about size does matter.

[Grimmas]

Tyson Dux comments on the CWC's restrictions:

 

"We had agents. We had to deal with agents as well and plan it out. I know for me personally, I wanted to do a stalling suplex from the second rope and they completely scrapped that. They said no way can you do that. For whatever reason, Me & Zach were supposed to be 50/50 right up to the end and it was more of a showcase for Zach which is understandable, right? I get it. There weren't major handcuffs put on, but they did want to steer the ship the way they want to steer it. So as we go along and get more progressive into it, they're easing up on it. Tozawa is known for that snap German suplex with a hold for the pin and they were adamant on saying no absolutely no head drops at all and when push came to shove, Tozawa did put (Ken) Johnson directly on his bean for that snap German suplex. It's the same as anything. It's wrestling politics. Either you kind of bite the bullet and ask for forgiveness later or you just do your stuff. I'm sure to God that burning hammer (Brian Kendrick's) was not discussed. WWE doesn't even let the tombstone fly other than The Undertaker."

 

http://wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2016/0915/617562/tyson-dux-talks-wwe-cruiserweight-classic-limits-restrictions/

Tyson and Zach had a rematch for Smash in Toronto last Sunday and it was A LOT better than their on at the CWC. No stalling suplex from the second rope though